THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 31, 1995 TAG: 9505310469
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
A surprising disclosure unfolded at a book sale to raise money for these newspapers' Joy Fund.
The sale in our building was put on by a pioneering outfit called Reading's Fun, a title that sums up why a good many love books.
What we read is a quick index of who we are. When somebody's reading on the bus, I nearly put a crick in my neck to see the title.
Word of the sale moved me to take a look where a dozen women were murmuring among books, bees at sweet peas. One other male customer was there. That ratio held through the day.
It didn't surprise Laulie McGovern, the young woman directing the sale. When some firm requests a sale for charity, she asks first how many women it employs.
My impression is that all newspaper people are hooked on books. We talk about them all the time.
I spied a collegiate colleague devouring a novel by John Barth. Her mother had recommended it. She and her sister read deeply.
``My two brothers never open a book,'' she said. ``None of the guys I know reads for pleasure.''
Across the aisle a young reporter, celebrated for clarity, piped up: ``Men are stupid and would rather drink themselves blotto than read.''
Is it not an honor to be dissed by someone so succinct? That crack, recalled on the rack of insomnia, can lull one to sleep, smiling.
I'd have continued drifting, asking questions, but my mentor, Tony Germanotta, suggested local libraries might be helpful. They were.
Of the last 25,265 books circulated from Norfolk's main library, 9,096 were checked out by women and 8,390 by men. Some 7,779 could not be pinpointed.
More men take out books from the main library than the branches, but women still prevail throughout.
In Portsmouth, women may have a slight edge. In Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, women take out more books, particularly fiction.
In Suffolk, library director Elliot Drew observed, ``Many men really don't pick up books until they retire. Then they start reading quite heavily. They begin to catch up.''
Often a woman selects all the books for her husband. ``She's been doing it so long she knows exactly what he likes to read,'' he said.
A couple comes in and the wife, pulling a book from shelf, says, ``I think you'd like this one.''
A choice draw in the library is the 18-foot shelf for new books with a long bench in front of it.
``It helps to make people comfortable,'' Drew said. ``People gather and start talking among themselves about what's good and what's not and which authors are good.''
The key, when the library opens a branch or picks a new place for the Bookmobile, is to interest children through story time or other activities.
``Once we get the children coming, the parents follow.'' Drew said.
A little child leads them. by CNB